Make Em Laugh
by xCaligula
Summary: A modern AU in which Eddie has steadily taken over amateur night at a comedy club. There, he meets Dan and Dan's two friends- Laurie and Walter. He watches their individual relationships just like he watches the rest of the world, seeing things that even they don't see. Even so, he isn't sure how to fix their problems or find a way to make Laurie hate him any less.
1. Don't you know everyone wants to laugh?

Thursday night used to be Amateur Night, but the all the amateurs stopped coming, with the exception of one. Edward Blake had begun frequenting the comedy club over a year before, and, after only a few weeks, he got tired of thinking about how he would have made the jokers' routines better and decided to have a go at it himself.

At first, he only got a few laughs, from those who actually got his layered jokes that bordered on social commentary, but slowly, he found a way to read the crowd. Eddie was an observant man- always had been- and he used that to learn what it was the patrons of the club wanted. He found a way to make everyone laugh at least once during the brief slot allotted for his routine, until his time got extended, longer and longer every few weeks.

Eventually, he had the whole night to himself and nobody else bothered signing up for Amateur Night. He was popular, he knew how to make the crowd laugh, and with a full night to himself, he had the chance to make his own jokes about life how he saw it. After all, he was an observant man and he was the sort to see the humor in everything, so he was always finding new material.

The third Thursday of every month had been Ladies' Night instead of Amateur Night; free admission for women and half-priced drinks. This didn't change when Eddie took over Thursdays, but they stopped booking acts for Ladies' Night. Instead, he would tailor his own to fit the mood, sometimes playing the part of an idiot husband who couldn't get his marriage right and other times playing the part of the free and easy bachelor. Repeat customers knew he was making it all up, but that didn't make it any less funny.

He was so popular that he wondered when the club owner would acknowledge it and finally start paying him. Mr. Veidt owned several clubs in Manhattan and was rarely seen at Shots and Giggles- a name Eddie would punch him for, if given the chance. He was rich and successful and well-liked by the public, but Eddie had yet to meet him and ask when the paychecks would start.

Not that he needed extra money. He did alright for himself, considering his job, and he wasn't one for luxuries anyway. He had worked at the same Walmart in Brooklyn for so long that he had found his way into a management position. It was tedious work and made it very hard to keep his temper in check, but he managed, blowing off steam through his jokes every Thursday night.

It was through these nights that he made an unlikely friend in a young man named Dan Dreiberg. He was a graduate student and he had appreciated Eddie's jokes from beginning, being one of the few people who really got the early ones. They were as different as night and day, but they had become friends all the same.

Eventually, Dan had begun bringing his friend, Walter Kovacs. Walter really appreciated Eddie's more politically charged jokes, and wasn't in school, as far as Eddie knew, and he wondered how the two had met. It was pretty clear that Walter wasn't well-off, which was a pretty sharp contrast to Dan, who seemed to come from money, but Dan just seemed the sort to make friends with anyone.

How Dan met Laurie Juspeczyk was another matter altogether, and something Eddie wondered quite a bit. It was a crazy coincidence, that his unlikely friend from the comedy club would be friends with his daughter, but, seeing as she didn't know he was her father, it wasn't something he could bring up.

In fact, he was lucky if he could bring anything up around her. The first time Dan had introduced her to Eddie Blake, she had torn into him. "Oh, my mom's friends told me all about him," she'd snapped. "I'd hoped the name was an unfortunate coincidence and that Dan had better taste in friends, but I guess not."

"What?" he'd said, playing as dumb as possible. "Ya don't mean to tell me you're Sally's little girl, do ya?" She was twenty three and not exactly little, but it was the first time he had seen her since she was an infant.

"Is that really all you have to say for yourself, after what you did to her?" she had screamed, looking ready to kill.

Dan had stepped in then, laughing awkwardly and saying, "Well, I think we should get to our table now. See you after the show, Eddie, good luck."

After that, he had continued to bring Laurie every now and then, and though she didn't yell at Eddie as often, she treated him coldly and was most likely only going for Dan's sake. Whatever Dan thought about his checkered history with Laurie's mother, he didn't say.

Meanwhile, Eddie tried to disguise his interest in Laurie, but it was hard not to wonder what his daughter had made of herself. Without directly asking, he didn't learn much about her, other than the fact that she was dating a physicist by the name of Jon who was more than likely a lot older than her, and he was not sure how he felt about that.

It was incredibly obvious that Dan didn't like her relationship with Jon either, though he tried to be subtle about it and it was for very different reasons. It was awkward for Eddie, knowing that one of his few friends was that interested in Laurie, but again, there was nothing he could do about it. They were all adults and he had no stake in her life, no matter how much he wished he did.

If Dan had any plans to make a move on Laurie, he was taking his time about it, and Eddie doubted their relationship would ever be anything more than one-sided. That being said, he had noticed another one-sided relationship in the group; Dan was just as oblivious to Walter's feeling as Laurie was to Dan's.

It wasn't something most people would have noticed, but Eddie was observant and he was in tune to his audience and what they wanted, and he could tell almost immediately that Walter wanted Dan. And though Dan had no idea, Eddie would bet that Walter had no idea either. The poor kid probably hadn't figured out he swung that way yet, and once he did, he would have to deal with the new panic of figuring out if Dan did.

But Dan only had eyes for Laurie and Laurie was still hung up on Jon, and Eddie could only watch and shake his head and chuckle at their drama. Yet another joke he'd discovered, and he couldn't even tell them the punchline without spoiling everything. The fact that he was Laurie's father was a punchline in itself, but they tied into each other in a way that would have been truly hilarious, had he not been so involved.

Even so, he couldn't help but laugh sometimes.


	2. Be an actor my son but be a comical one

**A/N: A flashback chapter, because we gotta know why he's Laurie's dad and all that. That being said, the canon rape attempt is here but not done in detail and easy to skate around. His routine in this chapter is pretty shitty because I am not a funny person and he is pretending to be a total dumbass (or more of a dumbass than usual) for the crowd's sake, so yeah. Take it with a grain of salt.**

"Everyone always tells me that my wife is out of my league. I didn't even know she played baseball!" That was an old one, corny and not very well thought out, but it served to be a good opener to his Ladies' Night act every now and then.

 _When he was eighteen, Eddie somehow found his way into college. He and his parents had never gotten along well, but they did very well financially and they were determined to make him an educated man. He didn't know exactly why he went along with their plans- maybe some part of him wanted to improve the relationship._

 _Whatever the case, when he graduated high school, he moved on to a nearby university, and that was where he met Sally Juspeczyk. He didn't know why she was there either; she always went on about wanting to go to an acting school so that she could be a movie star, but she stuck to majoring in drama and taking whatever parts she could get in the university's plays._

 _He had met her through mutual friends, Hollis, Byron, and Bill. Eddie wasn't particularly close to the three men, but he roomed with Bill and was sometimes invited along with them. They were the closest things to friends he had, so he rarely turned down an invitation. On one of their outings, Sally tagged along._

 _They had talked about her rather frequently, but he had never met her before that night and was absolutely floored by her beauty. He had had his fair share of girlfriends over the years, but he had never met someone quite as stunning as her. Almost instantly, he was infatuated with her._

"I mean, don't get me wrong, it's great that's she's pursuin' her own interests and all, but I'm more of a football man myself."

 _After that, he did anything and everything to get her attention. Whenever he had the chance to hang around Hollis, Byron, and Bill, he took it, hoping that he might run into her, and he tried to figure out where a drama major would spend her downtime._

 _He was studying business because that seemed the most practical choice for someone who didn't give a shit either way, and that meant that it was nearly impossible for their schedules to line up. They really didn't have all that much in common, but that didn't stop him from pursuing her._

 _Whenever they did have a chance to talk, he would shamelessly flirt with her and she would return the sentiment, though he had heard that she was like that with everyone and he had no way of knowing if she had any special interest in him. It was hard to tell I he should try asking her out or if he would only be met with rejection if he tried._

 _He grew more impatient with each passing day, wondering when he would get up the nerve or when she would give him more of a sign. He wanted her more than he had ever wanted anything and he had a hard time not getting his way._

"But, then again, I don't play baseball. Doesn't make sense that people tell me she's outta my league when I'm not even in one. But it wouldn't be the first time I didn't understand what someone was sayin'...especially where my wife is concerned!"

 _Things took a turn for the worse when the group went out drinking one weekend. Eddie was in a particularly bad mood after finding out that his grades were so low that he was going to be put on academic probation, and he intended to do whatever he could to forget about the problem._

 _But with Sally sitting across the table and giggling at everyone and showing just as much attention to Hollis as she always showed Eddie and winking at Byron and laying a hand on Bill's arm, his mood was not improving. Sally was supposed to be his, he knew that, and these guys were nowhere near worth her time. And if she didn't see that, he was going to have to prove it to her._

 _He was drunk, but that was no excuse for what followed. She got up and excused herself, and after a few minutes, he did the same. He waited in the dark hallway outside the bathrooms and when she came out, he grabbed her. It was public, but there was no one around and he figured this was the perfect time._

 _She resisted him but he just laughed it off, so far gone that he didn't think there was any way she could mean it. When she scratched him hard enough to draw blood, he knew that she did, but something in him snapped and before either of them knew what was happening, he had punched her in the stomach and shoved her against the wall, unzipping his pants._

 _He liked to think that he would have snapped out of it and stopped before things went too far, but he'd never know because a large man happened to come down that hallway and realize that Sally did not want what she was being given. Eddie was on the floor before he could really think about what he was doing._

"It's our friends who keep telling me that. Well, they're really her friends, but she says their 'ours'. Sorta like how all of my stuff is ours, except my old friends. Those aren't even mine anymore!"

 _After they found out about what was going on, Hollis and Byron wouldn't speak to him anymore, and Bill only did when it was necessary. They wanted to report it to the school and the man that had intervened wanted to call the police, but Sally had insisted that they let it drop. She was afraid that there might be backlash due to the way she was dressed or the fact that she was drinking underage._

 _But she made it clear that, though she was not taking any form of legal action, she was not planning on forgiving Eddie any time soon. With none of his friends speaking to him and his grades showing no sign of improving, he dropped out of school, which served to be the final cut in his ties to his parents._

 _He took up his job at Walmart then and lived alone, trying to pretend he didn't give a damn what had transpired that night. He had been drunk and made a mistake, so what? It was her loss not wanting to see him anymore and not forgiving him, right? He didn't care if Sally hated him forever and he certainly didn't miss her._

"Most of her stuff is still hers, though. Not supposed to touch anything...till it needs fixin', at least."

 _He never expected to see Sally again after that, but things didn't play out that way. One night, against all odds, she ended up sitting next to him at a bar, not realizing that it was him at first. He debated whether he should say anything or let her notice him, but he wasn't patient and he spoke up first._

 _She jumped, looking guilty to be recognized in a place like that, and she jumped again when she realized exactly who was talking to her. He told her that if she wanted him to go, he would, but that it had been a long time and it would be nice to catch up. At first, she was angry, telling him he had a lot of nerve to expect her to ever want to talk to him again after what had happened, but once he apologized, she backed down._

 _That was when she told him that she wasn't really mad at him anymore, not after all this time. She was just angry in general, having a rough night and a rough life. He asked her to elaborate and she told him that she was married now, that she had gone nowhere with her life, and that she absolutely hated her husband._

 _She want on to describe how empty and loveless the marriage was and he listened and was as sympathetic as he could be, and then they were in bed together. And then it had been a few months, and they had continually met up, and he was her brief respite from her miserable marriage._

"And then, once I'm broken it worse, I pawn it off on someone else to fix."

 _It all came crashing down when she confessed to him that she was pregnant and pretty sure it was his. She and her husband hadn't slept together in a while, and it was nearly impossible for it to be his. Whether or not he would figure this out didn't matter; she was cutting things off with Eddie for good._

 _He didn't agree with her decision, but there wasn't much he could do to stop her. So, even though he wanted to be a part of the child's life and he wanted to be with Sally, he decided that he had to respect her choice now, because if he had done that all along, he might be the one she was married to now and that made the whole mess his fault in the first place._

 _The baby was a little girl named Laurel Jane and he saw her once when she was a baby. It was another chance encounter; Sally was shopping while he was working and they pretended to be old friends and he pretended that the little baby in her arms was not his daughter._

 _When he met Laurie years later, as one of Dan's friends, he still had to pretend that and not ask why she had her mother's last name instead of her father's. He tried not to feel a little satisfied that there was a chance the marriage had gone south for good._

His Ladies' Night routines were never as good as they could be, but playing a part was harder than it looked; perhaps that was why Sally had never made it as an actress. But he did well enough and the women who showed up for that sort of thing loved it. Whether he was the idiot husband or the free and easy bachelor, they ate it up and even if they knew he was just playing the part, they didn't know just how terribly his love life had turned out or that the next week, he would have to deal with glares and subtle insults from the girl who didn't know she was his daughter.


	3. Go out and tell 'em a joke

Though he didn't tone it down or fake it nearly as much as he did in Ladies' Night, Eddie always took things down a few notches whenever he knew that Laurie was in the audience. There was something about having his daughter out there- even though she was twenty-three, even though she didn't know she was his daughter- that made him try to be a little bit more acceptable.

Not that any of that mattered. Nothing he said could get her to so much as crack a smile; she completely despised him, and with good reason. He wondered why she even bothered coming with Dan, considering just how much she hated being there and then he wondered if Dan's affections were not entirely onesided. Once again, he wasn't exactly sure how to feel about observing his daughter's love life like this.

Some nights, they wouldn't leave the club right after his routine- usually on the nights when Walter was with them, which was becoming more frequent- and Eddie would go over to their table and drink with them for a little while. Laurie, of course, hated this and gave him the cold shoulder the whole time while Dan tried to ignore how awkward things always were.

It was during these times that he would watch their personal dramas unfold. If Laurie were drunk enough she wouldn't care that he was there and would talk about her love life and complain about how things were with her boyfriend. Eddie learned that he was a physicist named Jon and that he had been a guest lecturer in one of her classes for a week back when she was in college.

It unsettled him a bit, imagining her being hit on in class by someone like that, but from the way she told the story, she had been flirting with him for the entire week and had gotten his number somehow at the end. To hear her tell the story, you would think that this Jon hadn't been all that interested in her and had just been going along with everything.

Whatever the case, it had been two years and they lived together but Laurie was miserable with him. According to her, he had become more and more distance and was so concerned with work that he barely noticed when she was gone. Most of her friends had moved away after school and she had been lonely and completely bored out of her mind until she had reconnected with Dan.

Things got interesting with that too. Dan was apparently a grad student in some bird thing and had been a TA when Laurie was in school. They had recognized each other in the streets sometime before she had started accompanying Dan to the comedy club and they had caught up and become rather close friends.

Laurie, he found out, had her bachelors in biology and wanted to go to veterinary school, but had been trying and failing to get in for the past two years. The problem, according to Dan, was not her grades, but just the sheer level of competition. Without work or school or friends to keep her busy, and with Jon not paying much attention to her, it was only natural that she and Dan would become close, and maybe that was the only reason she came to the club with him. Maybe she was so grateful for his kindness that she didn't have the heart to tell him how much she hated it.

Either way, Eddie was glad that he got to see her almost every week, and glad that she kept her hostilities to a minimum. He had been denied seeing her for so many years that it was nice to just get to look at her, even if she did hate him. Even if he also had to watch a man make eyes at her while she talked about her older, distant boyfriend. Even if he couldn't give her the advice he wanted to.

Walter and Dan's friendship had formed a little bit differently. When he finally asked about how they had met, he learned that Walter worked more than one job. There had been a time when he had been working three- that had recently been cut down to two, but only because one had offered him more hours and better pay- and Dan had seen him at all of them.

He had worked as a cart collector in a grocery store, a busboy in a diner, and gone around to a few different stores to do general cleaning. After a while, Dan had begun to recognize him and went out of his way to say hello. Eventually, they had become friends, and he had invited him along, deciding that Walter might appreciate some of Eddie's sense of humor.

He was certainly nicer about it than Laurie, at least, but Eddie appreciated seeing every one of the odd group. He even appreciated the humor of their romantic situation, when he looked at it from the perspective of the outsider he was pretending to be. Laurie's continuous griping about her situation, oblivious to the hidden meaning in Dan's support, while he didn't even notice the way Walter looked at him.

All it would take would be a few words to them, and they would all be aware of their situation. There would be no room for clueless and perhaps the stalemate they had trapped themselves in would move forward. But, then, it was never his place and they were young; they had time to figure things out for themselves. Maybe he might start slipping hints into his jokes, but that would be the closest he would get to telling any of them what was really going on.

"Tonight was good," said Walter one night, most likely trying to tune out the rather painfully obvious flirting that Dan was trying on Laurie. "I liked the thing you said about the president."

"I never mentioned the president," replied Eddie with a chuckle.

"Didn't have to. I could tell what you meant."

"You're a clever one, ya know that?" Again, he chuckled. "About as smart as Dan, really. How come you aren't in school?"

"It's expensive," Walter said simply. "And too late, probably."

"Well, I'd say it's never too late to go, but you're not wrong about it bein' expensive. And I'm sure as hell not one to preach about an education. I tried the whole college thing, but I ended up droppin' out and I turned out just fine."

"That's debatable." There was a hint of a smile on Walter's face as he said this, and Eddie wondered if that was his attempt at a joke. This was the longest he had spoken with him one on one and he was surprised to find that, though the younger man was a little bit eccentric and often said little, conversation with him was not unpleasant in the slightest.

And it certainly beat the hell out of watching Dan try to hit on Laurie.


	4. The world's at your feet

Every Thursday that the trio came to the club was much the same, except for the week that it wasn't. Eddie wasn't exactly clear on what was going on at first; all he could really tell was that Laurie was more distant than usual, and it wasn't just with him. Something had to be bothering her, and though he would have bet money that that something was her boyfriend, he didn't know how that was different than any other day, considering how he heard her talk about the guy.

But he didn't have much time to try to glean information on the problem at hand, or to try to work up the nerve to give advice that would be ignored and met with, most likely, her yelling at him. He had to ready himself for his routine, and so he said goodbye to the group, and received a simple goodbye from Walter, a 'break a leg ' from Dan, and a muttered 'if only' from Laurie. At least she had retained her sharp attitude, even when she was so obviously feeling down.

He took to the stage, diving into his planned routine for the night, rolling from one joke to the next nearly seamlessly, watching as, one by one, all of the patrons succumbed to laughter at some remark or another. All except Laurie, of course, but that was typical. What wasn't typical was how heavily she was drinking, and though he couldn't thoroughly watch her and perform at the same time, he continually found his gaze wandering back to her.

He felt those fatherly instincts he'd never really had the chance to use flaring up, and he wanted to tell her to slow down, to be more careful, but it wasn't his place and she wouldn't listen, and he couldn't exactly call her out in the middle of a show like that anyway. All he could really do was keep as much of an eye on her as he could, and trust Dan to be the responsible one and make sure she was alright. Eddie would never like the way Dan looked at his daughter, but he had to admit that if he had to pick anyone for her, he would be one of the better choices.

He wondered, of course, how them hooking up would affect Dan's friendship with Walter and how he would take something like that. _Hell, if the kid needs a friend after that_ , he thought, _I'll be feeling pretty shitty about it myself._

~X~

When the routine was done and he went by their table, Laurie was still drinking pretty heavily. She had gotten so trashed by this point, in fact, that she had actually laughed at a few of his jokes towards the end of the show, and he knew that that meant she must be in pretty bad shape. He hoped that Dan would have the good sense to try and take her home soon.

But as the night wore on, she only got worse, slurring her every word and draping herself over Dan, who looked almost as uncomfortable as Walter had this whole time. Eddie, to his credit, just kept acting like everything was the same, drinking and cracking jokes, but even he was not immune to just how awkward the entire situation was, and how much worse it was becoming.

Eventually, he excused himself to the bathroom, both because the need had arose and because he needed the excuse to get away from all of that for a moment. Not only was all of their discomfort contagious, but that was still his daughter making a fool of herself out there, and he came dangerously close to saying something a few times.

When he came out of the bathroom, he was surprised to find Laurie standing there, swaying slightly. She was glaring at him, and it was clear that she had been waiting for him, for whatever reason. For a fraction of a second, he remembered that time with Sally, for it had been in a dark hallway not unlike this one, but then Laurie's finger was in his face and he was brought back to the present.

"I can't believe how you act," she slurred. "You're so damn easygoing all the time, ya know? But I know all about you and you're a real bad guy."

He sighed, knowing that, even if he could really talk things over with her right now, it wouldn't matter. She was too shitfaced to really know what he was saying, so all he did was say, "Yeah, I am. Done some fucked up things, but that doesn't mean I'm proud of 'em."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" She was swaying so dangerously now that he was sure she would lose her balance at any moment. "Tryna be the good guy now, like that makes it better or something?" Laurie shook her head.

"Kid, I could never be the good guy." Just as he finished saying this, his prediction came true and she stumbled. He quickly grabbed her arm to steady her and she looked at his hand with disgust but did not move to get out of his grip.

"What are you tryna pull?" she asked, squinting up at him. "You think I'm gonna fall for your tricks? Not after what I know about you." Still, she did not even attempt to move away from him.

But he dropped her arm immediately, shaking his head. "No, no, s'not like that. I would never-"

"Why not?" she interrupted, and something in her face shifted, giving him a look that was not something he would have ever wanted from his daughter. "C'mon, you don't think I'm just a little bit pretty?" She laid her hand on his chest and he flinched.

"Laurie, you've got no idea what you're doin'," he said, stepping back. "You're drunk, an' there's just some stuff ya don't..."

As he stepped back, she stepped forward and stumbled again, this time falling into his arms. She looked up at him, with something almost like irritation. "Whatsa matter? I thought _you'd_ at least be into this..."

It dawned on him that she was not just drunk, she was desperate, and if he could find this Jon fellow, he would certainly teach him a lesson about how to treat a lady. The fact that Laurie felt neglected enough to get drunk enough to hit on Eddie of all people spoke volumes for how bad her relationship must be, and he didn't know if there was anything he could do to help her out.

He certainly couldn't help her out the way she wanted, but she would never understand why he had to reject her like he did. It was understandable to turn her down simply because of how drunk she was or because of the age difference, of course, but if she remembered the disgust in his eyes the next morning, she would never know that it was not him finding fault in her, but him having some morality for once.

"Come on," he said at last, pushing her off of him and grabbing her arm tightly. "Let's walk, alright?" She stumbled after him, rambling incoherently, perhaps thinking that she had gotten her way and that he was taking her home. Instead, he took her back to their table, where Dan and Walter seemed surprised to see her being drug along like that.

"She's in bad shape," said Eddie. "I think ya need to get her on home." When Dan stood, he let go of Laurie and she stumbled over to him. She soon fell into his arms, much as she had with Eddie, and seemed to forget her anger with him entirely as her focus shifted to Dan.

"I...yeah, I agree," he said, looking more than a little flustered to have her hanging all over him like that. "Walter, will you be alright here?"

"Yeah. Get her home," his friend replied, not looking up from the table. Eddie could tell that he wasn't exactly eager to be left alone, but Dan didn't notice as he helped Laurie to the door.

When the two of them were gone, Eddie sat in silence. Walter was never particularly chatty, but tonight, he did not so much as lift his head to look around the club. He was hurt, even if he wouldn't admit it, and Eddie wondered if he should try to say anything to make the situation better.

"Laurie sure was a wreck," he finally said, after a while. He didn't want to talk bad about her, even if it was true, but he hoped that a good laugh might raise Walter's spirits a little bit.

"She was upset about something," he replied. "Don't see why she wouldn't just talk to Dan about it from the start. It was obvious that he wanted to help her. Guess he finally got his wish, at least."

It was more than Eddie was used to hearing the younger man say, which must have been proof that he was hurting pretty badly over this, and that Eddie's statement hadn't helped at all. He tried a different approach. "Well, from the looks of her, she'll be down for the count just as soon as she gets in her door."

"If she doesn't convince him to take advantage of her intoxication first."

"Hey, now, Dan's not that sorta guy," he said quickly, more because he wanted to believe it. Truth be told, he really didn't know the man's habits all that well, and though he seemed spineless enough, there was no telling how he might act once he had her alone like that.

"People change, especially where sex is concerned," said Walter matter-of-factly. "He seems better than that, but there's no telling."

"Well, I guess we just gotta have faith in our good buddy," Eddie said, because that was all he really could say. He hoped that he had done the right thing in handing Laurie over to Dan like that; there hadn't really seemed to be much choice otherwise. It wasn't as if he could spend any more time with her in her state.

The best he could do now was drink a bit more himself, in hopes that it would erase Dan and Laurie from his mind and make conversation with Walter a little bit easier.


	5. A great big custard pie in the face

The instant the three entered the club the next week, Eddie could tell that something was different, and it wasn't very hard to see what it was. Walter was walking with a bit more distance between him and Dan, while Dan and Laurie were closer than usual and, after a moment, Dan put his arm around her shoulder.

Whatever had gone down between them after he had helped her home that day, it had caused him to get over his nerves or caused her to see him in a new light, or maybe a little bit of both. They were clearly a couple now, and Eddie wondered if it were official or an affair. He hoped that it was the former and that she had finally left Jon; that would at least mean one thing he was sure on his feelings about.

Because he had no idea how he was supposed to feel about all of this. It was true that he liked Dan well enough and that he had begrudgingly admitted to himself that he was not bad for Laurie, and it was true that he wanted her in a better relationship, but it was also true that he still felt misplaced paternal instincts that made him want to protect her from any man that came her way.

She was an adult, though, and he had seen enough proof of that. No matter how much he regretted not seeing her in childhood, it did not change the fact that he saw her nearly every week in adulthood, and that may have been jarring, but it was just the way things were. He was partially responsible for her dating Dan, and he would have to watch them act like a couple without any of the shame couples have around their parents, and he would just have to grin and bear it.

Eddie was certainly no stranger to that.

~X~

He did his best not to look to their table often during his routine, though it was hard. There was a part of him that was so morbidly curious about what was going on at that exact second, and of course there was still the part of him who wanted to look at everyone in the audience and make sure he was on the right track in terms of making them laugh. But there was another part of him, assuring him that he sure as hell didn't need to see Dan's hands on his daughter anymore than he had to, or else the young man might not live to see the next day.

Once the show was over, he debated skipping out and leaving before any of them had a chance to talk to him. It would be a hell of a lot easier on him, but then Dan would probably ask where he had gone the next time they saw each other, and that would be even more annoying, and he couldn't keep avoiding them forever. So he sat down at their table like nothing was different and tried not to look at their interlocked hands resting on the table.

He could tell by the way Walter had resumed the previous week's habit of staring directly down that he wasn't taking it well either, though yet again, it was debatable whether or not Dan even noticed. And if Laurie remembered how she had acted around Eddie the week before, she didn't let that show. Or maybe she did- he was so used to her icy treatment of him, that perhaps there was a difference that he didn't notice.

But there was a difference in her that was easy to spot, and that was that she actually seemed happy, for the first time in a long time. No matter how she may glare at Eddie whenever their eyes happened to meet, there was no disguising the joy in her eyes at other times, the smile that was always fighting to come out. Whatever she had with Dan and however he may feel about it, it was a good thing.

As the night wore on, the two made their excuses and vanished; this time, Dan did not even bother asking Walter if he would be alright by himself. And then that same old silence descended over the table, and all Eddie could think to say was things that he was sure he shouldn't say to Walter. The young man was hurt and wouldn't want to answer questions, but Eddie had them, and how else would he break the silence?

"So, what's goin' on between those two?" he asked. "Are they a thing now, or what?"

"She broke up with Jon," replied Walter, mumbling. "Pretty sure she started with Dan first, but not long before. Still doesn't make it right."

He was giving away more information than was requested of him, and Eddie figured that was because he wanted to get that jab at Laurie in. And Eddie would have been mad, but there was no sense in getting mad when Walter didn't know any better, and he really did feel sorry for the kid.

"I dunno about that," he replied. "I mean, she was pretty unhappy in that relationship. Maybe she wanted a quick out like that. S'hard to really judge a situation like that, ya know?" It was the only way he could think to defend Laurie while trying to not look like he cared too much.

Walter only grunted in reply, and it was obvious that he disagreed. It was understandable, but Eddie wasn't done with the conversation just yet. "I mean, I can't say I didn't see it comin'. It was just a matter of time before she got fed up and went for the guy who actually pays attention to her. You saw it comin' too, right?"

He nodded quickly, acknowledging that he had known all along that the outcome would not be in his favor. It seemed that he wouldn't contribute anything else to the discussion, but after a brief silence he said, "She hates you, but you're nice to her. Why?"

Eddie sighed, not knowing how to answer the question. If he asked Walter to keep the truth a secret, he was sure that he would; it wasn't as if the young man had any loyalties to Laurie. But even so, he didn't think his secret was worth telling in this situation, and even he had to admit it sounded unbelievable. Finally, he just settled on, "She reminds me of somebody I cared a lot about."

"Her mother?" He raised a brow at Eddie.

"What do you think?" Eddie shook his head. "I know it looks bad but...there are things Laurie don't know about the past."

"That's understandable." It wasn't much, and it didn't mean much, coming from someone who knew the situation even less than Laurie did, but Eddie was surprised to find it made him feel a little bit better, for whatever reason. Maybe being around a girl who hated him so much had affected him more than he knew; maybe he had needed reassurance. Maybe he wasn't always as tough as he thought.


	6. Those old honky tonk monkeyshines

When Dan and Laurie didn't show up, he was surprised to see that Walter still did. He was so surprised, in fact, that he looked around to see if he had missed them or to see if they were hanging back slightly, but no one followed him into the club except a few regulars that Eddie did not actually know.

He had no idea why Dan and Laurie had not come, and he had even less idea why Walter would come by himself. It wasn't as if the two had any stellar conversations and he was sure that the younger man was only coming to spend time with his friend. Yet here he was, by himself, at their usual table.

But though the conversations were not stellar, they were there, and Eddie had found himself discussing things with Walter more and more as the happy couple get closer and shut the two of them out. The previous week had been ladies' night, so he hadn't seen them, and he was a little bit glad to see that Walter still came, even without the other two.

Still, he wondered where they were and why they had skipped out all of the sudden. He wondered if, perhaps, Laurie had finally managed to convince Dan that Eddie was the scumbag she was sure he was and that they would not be coming back. He didn't think about that possibility for long because he didn't want to; he would likely never see her again, if that were the case, and he had come to enjoy getting to know his daughter, even if he was getting to know her as a peer.

When his routine was over and he had taken his seat next to Walter, he wasted no time in asking, "So, where's our friends?"

"Special occasion," replied Walter, with the slightest hint of sarcasm in his voice, something Eddie had previously thought him incapable of. "It's been a month."

"Since...?" But then he remembered. "Oh. Yeah, I guess it has been a month since they...ya know, left together." He shook his head. "Dunno why they'd want to spend it somewhere, considerin' this place kinda helped bring 'em together, but whatever the hell floats their boats."

"They were afraid to come here without me. If they go get fancy dinner, it makes sense to not invite me, for me to expect not to go. If they come somewhere I always go with them, they would have to explain why they didn't want me there." Eddie once again caught himself wondering about why the younger man would volunteer so much information when he was normally so reserved.

For the first time, he wondered if the two of them might have become friends of some sort over time. He laughed quietly to himself at the thought of the two of them, both oddballs in their own right, becoming friends at all, and then not even realizing that it had happened.

Eddie didn't really have many friends as it was. In fact, when he thought about it, he couldn't think of any friends he had, outside of this. He barely interacted with any coworkers, and work was the only place he went besides the club. Dan and Walter (and maybe someday Laurie, if he were lucky enough) were the closest things he had to friends, and it was only just dawning on him that was starting to get closer to Walter, in a way he hadn't with anyone.

It was hilarious, considering their conversations were lacking and they spent more time in silence than anything else. But even though he was more talkative, Eddie wasn't really better at holding a conversation, just better at pretending. He was loud and he wasn't shy and he was a performer and he and many others considered him to be funny, but that did not mean he was gifted with many social graces. It appeared that the two had more in common than met the eye.

So, no matter how the interactions went or how the two related to each other, the fact remained that he considered Walter his friend now, and since Dan was making a less frequent appearance in his life and Laurie wasn't his friend to begin with, that made Walter his best friend by default. And Eddie might not have been good at this, but he at least knew that when one's best friend was upset, it was one's responsibility to make them feel better by any mean's necessary.

"Ya know, I don't really see ya drink much," he said. "Or at all, come to think of it."

"I don't drink," replied Walter.

"Well, have ya ever tried?" When he shook his head, Eddie laughed and said, "Then ya don't even know if you like it or not! C'mon, whaddaya say ya let me show ya the ropes? I'll buy!"

"That's not a good idea."

"Aw, c'mon, what's the worst that could happen? Ya got me to look after you, remember? I can be the responsible one, alright?"

"It's not a good idea."

"Cos it's a great one!" Eddie gave his most persuasive smile. "I promise, it'll make ya feel a hell of a lot better."

"Temporarily," replied Walter.

Eddie shook his head. "Ya can't think like that, kid. Just live in the now, worry about later when it comes."

It took a lot more convincing than that, but eventually, Walter reluctantly agreed to just try a drink, and then Eddie told him he would have to try more than one to figure out what his drink of choice was, and that was the end of that. He turned out to be a lightweight; unsurprisingly, considering his height, build, and lack of prior experience, but the fact that he grew incredibly intoxicated without much effort made Eddie feel just a little bit left out.

So he decided not to be the responsible one, as he had previously promised, and soon enough, he was positively shitfaced. He found that Walter wasn't much more talkative when drunk, but he also found he didn't mind and could keep going on, rambling about some difficult customer he'd dealt with a week ago.

No one had found the story very funny when he'd relayed it to them sober, but he found telling it drunk earned him a few more laughs, or maybe that had more to do with the fact that his companion was also drunk. Either way, Walter laughed more openly at that than he had at anything Eddie had seen, and he laughed right along with him.

When they had both caught their breath, he said, "Say, kid, ya wanna...ya wanna, like, get outta here or somethin'?"

"Yeah, alright," replied Walter, and the two staggered to the nearest subway station and took the train to Brooklyn, where Eddie showed his friend the way to his home.

And that was where the two remained the next morning, in Eddie's bed while their clothes were strewn across the floor.


	7. Pretending you're a dancer with grace

Eddie hadn't been hungover in a long time, had gotten used to drinking enough that it rarely happened, so the fact that he woke up with a pounding head meant he must have had more than he was used to. That was the first thing he noticed that he was out of the ordinary; the second was the warm figure he held in his arms. It had also been a long time since he had brought a girl home with him, and he wondered who in the hell he could have met the night before.

After all, all he could remember was talking with Walter and then...

 _Oh shit_ , he thought, and that was when he really noticed how distinctly un-feminine the person he held felt, how sharp their shoulders were, how completely without curves they were. _Oh fuck, oh hell, oh_ shit _. Don't fucking tell me._

He looked down, already knowing that he would see a head of short red hair that could only belong to Walter, and the events of the previous night came back to him, vague and blurred, even spotty in places. But there was no denying the fact that he had done exactly what it looked like he had done.

Just as the severity of the situation began to dawn on him, the younger man began to stir in his arms. He groaned, likely facing a much more sever hangover, and then he stiffened, realizing the strangeness of the situation just as Eddie had. His eyes flew open and he looked up at the older man, who could only offer a weak smile and a nervous chuckle.

"No," was all Walter said, and then he was wrestling away, pushing himself out of Eddie's arms. He took one look at their clearly naked state and made a sound of distress, getting up frantically. "No, we didn't, we couldn't, you..." He groaned, wincing. "You tricked me, I knew not drink...shouldn't have..."

He stumbled, and Eddie was up in a flash, steadying him. "Easy there, kid. Ya need to take things a little slower, you're not used to this." He eased Walter down so that he could sit on the bed, and he buried his face in his hands while Eddie laid a hand on his back, not really sure what to say in a situation like this.

How had this even happened? How in the hell had he ended up in bed with _Walter_ , a _guy_ , of all people? He hadn't ever thought he was... _that way_ , yet here he was, with indisputable evidence that he had had sex with Walter. And enjoyed it a lot, if his memory was correct.

But the fact that he had done something so out of character for himself was only the tip of the iceberg when considering just how messed up the whole situation was. This was Walter, his friend who had only just realized was his friend, who he had been trying to cheer up after a heartbreak, who clearly had no experience in this department. The previous night had undoubtedly been his first time, and he had been drunk and it had been with Eddie, who was supposed to have been the responsible one.

And the worst part of it all was, though he was confused about what all of this meant, though he felt guilty for doing it in the first place, though he was sure that it couldn't be true, he didn't want to regret it. He didn't want to regret spending the night with someone he shouldn't have, and the only reason he could put to that was one that he would never have considered on his own: perhaps there was something more to his feelings than friendship.

It was insane and completely outside of his realm of experience, but no matter how he tried to convince himself that it was a mistake, he couldn't abolish the thought once it had taken root. At some point along the road, he had developed an interest in Walter, so subtle that it had not made itself known until his inhibitions had been pushed aside. He was nearly fifty years old and had never even considered it possible for him to be attracted to another man, yet here he was.

The irony of it all was that he was been watching Walter, just as he had been watching Dan and Laurie, and he had known so much about their lives from observation, sometimes even more than they themselves knew, but, even knowing so much about all of them, he had not been able to see what was going on inside him. He had known everyone but himself, and now he was the one to take himself by surprise. That seemed funny to him, and he laughed.

Walter's head snapped up and he quickly said, "It's not funny."

"No, I...I wasn't laughing about that," Eddie replied, shaking his head and trying to regain a straight face. "Just thought of somethin' else is all. I mean, look, I know all of this ain't exactly...ideal, but..." He groaned, words failing him. He was so far out of his element here, where a joke wouldn't fit, where he had to be serious, expose himself. "I don't want what happened to just be, ya know...nothin', alright."

Walter stared at him, confused. "But that wasn't..."

"Don't say it wasn't anything," replied Eddie. He tried an easy grin. "C'mon, ya can't say ya didn't enjoy yourself, and I sure as hell know I did. All of this is...pretty new to me, too, and I know things are complicated as fuck, but I'm just askin' for a chance. Maybe see where the hell this is going before we write it off completely."

"I didn't want something to start like this," was all the younger man said, and Eddie couldn't help but wonder if that meant he _had_ wanted something to start between them, just in a different way. Or maybe he just meant in general, and hadn't considered this possibility any more than Eddie had.

"Hey, s'not exactly my first choice either, but what's done is done and, like I said, I don't wanna write it off just like that," he said. "Just lemme take ya out to dinner at least, huh?" He laughed. "I know you're s'posed to do that first and all, but I'm willin' to make it up to ya. Better late than never, right?"

He knew that he was talking too much, but Walter was talking even less than usual, and that was saying something. Anything to fill the silence and ease the tension, anything to let the other man know that things were fucked up, but they weren't _that_ fucked up, and that they were going to be fine.

The silence extended long beyond the point where anyone else would have said something, and he was sure that Walter was going to turn him down and get out of his house as quickly as possible, as if it had never happened. He braced himself for that rejection, wondering why in the hell he already hurt over something that hadn't happened yet and something that he would have never thought would matter to him, but the rejection did not come.

Walter gave the smallest of nods, looking down once again. He kept his eyes down as he mumbled, "Yeah."

Once again, Eddie's reaction stunned him. He was happier than he expected, letting out a breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding. This was not how he had expected any of this to go, not how he ever would have foreseen things playing out between the two of them. He hadn't cared about somebody like this in a long time, hadn't wanted to really spend time with someone or get to know someone like this, and he had forgotten that he even could.

It was so damn cheesy that it would have made him nauseous if he wasn't too busy feeling an excitement that wouldn't make any sense to him for a long time. But, though he wouldn't pretend to understand whatever the hell he was feeling for Walter, he would go with it. He had fucked up a lot of things in his life, but this was so different that he hoped he had a better chance this time.

~X~

The next night, the two met at the club, but they didn't go in. One of the paid comedians was preforming, and neither of them really cared to hear his routine. Instead, Eddie took Walter to dinner somewhere nice, but not fancy. Neither of them suited somewhere fancy, but he also didn't want to start this off in a diner.

Dinner passed without much conversation, but that was not unusual. It was not as uncomfortable as it could have been, given what had transpired between them, and Walter actually seemed to be making an effort. Eddie realized that there was a strong chance that this was not entirely onesided, and that Walter might want this to work out as well. He was hard to read, but Eddie was slowly figuring him out.

He tried to get Walter to drink again, hoping to loosen him up a little more, but he refused, even when Eddie promised that it could be in moderation this time and that he wouldn't drink heavily himself. But he didn't push it, and let it go after minimal discussion.

When the night was coming to an end, Eddie asked Walter if he would like to come back to his house again. He wasn't expecting anything and figured that Walter would be just as unwilling to go back there as he had been to drink, but he was surprised. Walter quietly agreed, and they made their way back in a tense silence.

It was no secret what Eddie wanted to happen between them, and if Walter was opposed, he made no sign of it. He hardly hesitated to enter the bedroom, and he sat on the bed awkwardly, waiting for Eddie's lead. It seemed that he wanted this, but he wasn't saying anything.

Eddie sat beside him, suddenly unsure of what he was to do either. He had been so shitfaced the first time that he hadn't had any trouble figuring it out, but trying this sober was another matter entirely. He had never been a nervous man, but he found himself not knowing where to put his hands, not knowing how to initiate this. Did he treat Walter like he would have treated a woman?

He finally placed a hand behind Walter's head and pulled him in for a kiss, a much gentler kiss than he could recall giving anyone. They pulled apart only briefly before he dove in for another one, easing the younger man down on the bed without breaking the kiss. He tangled a hand in his hair, but he felt Walter tense beneath him and he became less responsive.

Eddie pulled away and said, "You doin' alright?" Walter nodded, and he said, "Ya know, we don't have to..."

"Don't really know what to do," he replied, looking away.

"Me neither," Eddie confessed, shaking his head. "I don't have a damn clue about any of this either. Guess it's somethin' we gotta figure out, huh?" He rolled onto his side, no longer on top of Walter, and pulled him beside him.

"What now?"

"I dunno. Like I said, I don't have a damn clue." They laid in silence after that, and it was not long before he heard Walter's breath grow steady beside him. Stunned, Eddie realized that, despite everything, he was comfortable enough to fall asleep there, just like that.

And, though that seemed small, it was enough to ease his uncertainty for that night, and he soon allowed himself to fall asleep as well.


	8. All the world wants to laugh

When they woke up the next morning, both were a little bit more calm about the situation, though this time they _were_ both fully clothed and had been sober the night before and had actually intended to end up in bed together, at least to some degree. After falling asleep, they had both stayed asleep, and nothing more had happened between them, but Walter seemed more comfortable with that.

He was still a bit on edge, but that was understandable, given how new he was to all of this. Eddie certainly couldn't blame him, not when he was the one leading and he didn't have much experience himself. Well, no experience that would be very helpful in this situation.

They went to a small diner for breakfast, because Eddie barely cooked for himself and didn't feel like subjecting Walter to that just yet, but they didn't discuss what was happening between them. He wanted to ask, but he didn't want to ask; he felt like a teenager, afraid of what the answer might be, and he wondered why the hell Walter was the one to get such a reaction out of him.

But when breakfast was over, he knew that it was time for Walter to leave, and he knew that that meant it was time to ask to see him again. Still, he did not want to invite rejection like that, and all he could bring himself to say was, "So, I'll see ya at the club on Thursday, right?"

"Maybe before that," said Walter, looking down. "If that's alright."

Once again, he felt like a teenager, much too excited by the prospect of getting to see him sooner. Funny how it had all changed so fast, how they had barely been friends and then they had suddenly been a lot more. He hadn't expected to catch himself crazy about anyone, but here he was.

"If ya want to," he replied, much more casually than he felt. "I mostly got work in the mornings, so any evening this week would work."

"Tomorrow?"

Damn, he was more eager than he let on! For someone who seemed as much like a loner as he did, he seemed to want to spend as much time with Eddie as possible, and they had only just begun to explore the possibility of a relationship. Whatever they were, it was clear that it was something serious, even if neither had yet found the words to express what they wanted.

He wondered how Dan and Laurie were going to react when they found out what had happened in their absence.

~X~

And that, in itself, was an issue Eddie hadn't considered before. He had went his whole life believing himself to only be attracted to women; he was only just revealing to himself that that was not true and he wasn't sure how he would feel letting other people know about that.

It wasn't even that he was afraid to be open about the relationship. He had never given much of a fuck what strangers thought about him, and had always done his own thing, and, even though it was not something he had ever seen himself doing, if anyone had a problem with it, he wouldn't care.

But then there was Laurie, and he knew that he shouldn't care about her opinion, all things considered, but he did. Even knowing that she probably wouldn't judgmental about such things and that she would hate him no matter what he did and that she didn't even know he was her father, he still couldn't help thinking about it like that. He could only think about it from the perspective of a daughter finding out about their father, even knowing that that didn't apply to her.

When he really thought about it, he shouldn't have anything to worry about, at least not in the people around him. Neither Laurie nor Dan seemed the type to judge, and it wasn't anyone's business what Eddie did or who he did it with, so his fear was completely unfounded. But that didn't change the fact that there was a bit of uneasiness involved, and he was sure that was just because of how things had been in the past, and that he wasn't even sure how he felt about himself now.

There was doubt that he didn't know how to deal with. He had never done anything even remotely like this before, and it had all come on so suddenly that he couldn't deny that he feared it wasn't real. Even knowing that it felt more real than anything he had felt in a while, he had his doubts because he couldn't explain it or where it had come from, and he was not the sort to not understand things.

After all, hadn't he thought about that when this had first started? All the times he had watched what was going on with everyone else and had been in the know about it all, but that there had been something going on within him that he hadn't known and that he couldn't understand. It was only natural that now he would have doubts, and that those doubts would make him wary about making this public.

It was too much for him to think about at once, and too much for him to allow himself to get stressed over. The best response to those sorts of situations was to throw caution to the wind, in his opinion, and he had no intention of slowing things down with Walter to consider this anyway. If any doubt came up along the way, he would just have to face it then, and deal with it however he could.

And whatever happened would happen, but that was down the road. For now, he had something that was good, no matter how difficult it was to explain, and he hadn't been close to anyone in a very long time. It would be nice to not have to be alone, and though it would take some learning and getting used to, Walter seemed to need just as much, if not more, learning and adjustment. They were a good fit, in that way.

They were a good fit in a lot of ways, even if it didn't look that way on the surface. Even if some of their conversations looked one sided, or Walter seemed less enthused than Eddie or Eddie seemed to not notice if Walter was uncomfortable, that didn't mean that was the case. In realty, he just liked to talk and Walter liked to listen, and he could usually tell when the younger man was off and could usually steer the conversation in a better direction. He hadn't ever met someone who liked to listen to him like that, or got his sense of humor like that, and that was something.

So no matter how unsure he was and no matter how doubt might creep up when he let his guard down, Eddie handled things the way he best knew how, and just kept on not caring what problems might arise. He and Walter ended up doing something every evening that both of them were free, and when Thursday rolled around, he arrived alongside Dan and Laurie. They were hand in hand, and though Laurie still gave him the same old glare, she still seemed just as happy as she had been since she and Dan had first gotten together. Eddie knew it would take time, but someday, Laurie might manage to come around.

Everything about them was so normal that he knew that Walter hadn't told them yet. He couldn't blame he; it wasn't like he had any idea how to tell them either. In fact, there didn't really seem to be any way to do it that didn't feel off, and so, when they came up to say hello to them, he just put an arm around Walter like it was something he did every night.

And, as expected, the two looked at them, barely managing to mask their confusion, and Dan stammered out something, trying to start a conversation to hide just how surprised he was. Laurie did a worse job of hiding it, openly gawking at them, and if Dan hadn't been talking, Eddie was sure that she would have asked. But then it was time for his routine, and if his jokes were a little more light-hearted this week, or if there were more romantic undertones to them, he would never admit that that was intentional.

Once he had gone to their usual table, Dan and Laurie both watched him, waiting to see what would happen. Eddie just sat down next to Walter and threw his arm around him like before, while the younger man blushed and looked down and said nothing. For once, Laurie wasn't glaring, too shocked by this turn of events to remember that she hated him, and it was a small start to improving their relationship, but he would take whatever he could get.

"So, how was this week?" he asked, because no one seemed ready to say anything this time.

"It was, uh, it was great like always," Dan said. "You, uh...had some really different material, though. Is there a, um, reason for that?"

"What the hell's going on?" asked Laurie, much less subtle.

"Oh, guess I'm just in a good mood this week," he replied vaguely. "Probably won't be changin' up my material like that anymore, but I had a good reason this time."

They never outright asked if he and Walter were a couple, which Eddie appreciated, considering the fact that they had never addressed it themselves, but as things continued in much the same way over the course of the next few weeks, it became obvious to the for of them that, yes, they were.

Eddie couldn't help but admit to himself that it was hilarious, the way he floundered in this relationship and the way he had managed to surprise himself and the way no one had had to say anything but everyone had known. Maybe there was a joke in there somewhere and maybe he'd make a routine of it. He just wondered if he'd have to give credit to them during his performance, given how much assistance he'd had from the three of them.


End file.
